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Friday, November 20, 2015

Empowering farming communities through cooperatives

By Simon Munyeki and Bob Aston

Although Laikipia County is an arid
area, this has not stopped its residents from taking farming seriously, as it is
their main source of income. To make this enterprise profitable farmers from
the region have formed Laikipia Produce and Marketing Cooperative Society.

Located at Gikomba Hills Complex in
Sipili Township, Ol-Moran Ward in Laikipia West Sub County, the cooperative
emerged from the work undertaken by Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) through Ng’arua Maarifa Centre with the support of the Ford Foundation’s Expanding
Livelihoods for Poor Households Initiative (ELOPHI).

Some members of the cooperative being trained on good agricultural practices

The cooperatives mandate is to
aggregate the farming communities by pooling them together and empowering them
to take control of their farm’s enterprises thus enhancing their bargaining
power and profit margins.

Through collaboration with various
stakeholders, the members have been able to benefit through various capacity-building
trainings aimed at improving their agricultural enterprises.

Members share their cooperative experiences

Mrs. Naomi Ngonyo joined the
cooperative in 2013 with the belief that access to subsidized government
fertilizer will no longer be a problem for her as an individual farmer. In
early March, she received an SMS from the cooperative management informing members
to register for subsidized government fertilizer.

Although she was skeptical at first that
the initiative would not succeed, she went ahead and registered for ten bags of
subsidized government fertilizer. The same month she received an sms from the
cooperative informing her that the subsidized fertilizer was available and she
should visit the cooperative store to collect the fertilizer.

The cooperative stand during 2015 Laikipia County Agribusiness trade fairs

“The notion that most cooperatives
are always mismanaged is not true. This year I managed to buy the subsidized
government fertilizer through the cooperative. I saved a lot of money and time
going to Nyahururu to look for the subsidized,” said Naomi Ngonyo

On his part, Mr. James Mathenge
joined the cooperative in February 2014, when he was passing by the cooperative
store and he saw a van unloading bags of certified hybrid maize seeds.LRV documented the story titled “curiosity
leads a farmer to joining a cooperative.”

Issue of certified hybrid seeds,
advisory services and buying subsidized government fertilizer from the
Co-operative are some of the things that encouraged him to join the
Co-operative.

Since joining the cooperative, he has
been buying certified hybrid seeds and subsidized government fertilizer without
any problem. He is happy that for two season he has not had any problem with
fake seeds as the cooperative has been selling genuine seeds directly from
Kenya Seed Company Ltd and Pioneer Hi-Bred Ltd.

“This year I received five bags of
subsidized government fertilizer from the cooperative. Getting the subsidized
government fertilizer used to be a big problem but this year it was not an
issue,” said Mr Mathenge.

High storage cost for cereals has
always been a challenge for Mr. Simon Hehu. He feared that quality of his
cereals would deteriorate after some time and fear of aflatoxin accumulation in
storage usually makes him spend a lot of money in buying pesticides.

In August this year he was informed
that the cooperative had entered into a distributorship deal with Bell
Industries Ltd to supply Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags. After
hearing the various benefits of the bag such as minimizing cost of storage and
reduced post-harvest-grain losses, he realized that the bags would address his
main challenges during storage.

Subsidized government fertilizer being offloaded to the cooperative store

The good news has made him plan to
buy more bags for storing his grains once they dry. He said that he would no
longer buy insecticides for storing grains as he has confirmed that the bags
are effective.

Mrs. Jane Ndiritu a member of the cooperative
was among the first farmers to benefit through an initiative of ALIN, Laikipia
Produce and Marketing Cooperative Society, Kenya Seed Company Ltd, Ministry of
Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and MEA Ltd.

The cooperative forwarded her name as
one of the farmers to host a demonstration plot. Since then she has gained a
lot of knowledge from several trainings organized at the demonstration plot and
other trainings organized for members of Laikipia Produce and Marketing
Cooperative Society.

This year marked the second year when
she has bought certified hybrid seeds from the cooperative. She noted that it
is safer to buy seeds from the cooperative due to guaranteed germination and
lower prices.

“Access to certified hybrid seeds
used to be a problem in Sipili. We used to buy fake seeds but now that is no
longer a problem. The cooperative has enabled smallholder farmers like us to
stop worrying about seeds,” said Mrs. Nderitu.

Despite cooperatives playing a major
role in resource mobilization, agro-processing and marketing of agricultural
produce, most smallholder farmers particularly in rural areas are always
reluctant to join cooperatives but this is not the case with Laikipia Produce
and Marketing Cooperative Society, as more farmers are enjoying the benefit of
being members.

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